VIU Campus

Randomizing Quiz Questions

VIULearn quizzes allow you to vary what each student sees in their quiz in three ways: 

  1. Use Question Pools to present different questions out of a question bank. 
  2. Shuffle the order of questions in the quiz. 
  3. Shuffle the order that multiple choice options appear for each student.

These options can be used to create dynamic practice tests which allow students to repeatedly test their own knowledge, or to help minimize unwanted collaboration on online quizzes. 

If you intend to use these options, we strongly recommend creating all questions in the Question Library before creating your quiz. The Question Library stores a copy of your questions so you do not lose them. You can always edit your questions from the Question Library in order to cascade changes to all quizzes in the course that might be using the question. In addition to these benefits, you must have your questions in the Question Library in order to create a question pool.

If you will be shuffling the answer options for a multiple choice question, avoid using answers such as "all of the above" or "A and C."

  1. Click Assessment in the course navigation bar. Select Quizzes from the dropdown menu.

  2. Click the Question Library tab.

  3. If you have not yet created your question click New and choose your question type. OR, click on the question you want to edit.

    Only Multiple Choice Questions and Multi-Select Questions can be randomized.

  4. Check the box for Randomize answer order and click the blue Save button.

  5. If you have already added your question to a quiz, you will see a screen asking if you want to update the copy of the question that is in the quiz. Check the box for any quiz you want to update and click Save.

If you use sections in your quiz, you can shuffle questions within a section to randomize the order of those questions. The questions in that section will be shuffled, but will still appear together in the quiz and not interspersed with questions that are not in the section.

  1. From the Manage Quizzes section of the Quiz Tool, click on the Quiz you want to edit.

  2. Scroll down and click the name of the section you want to shuffle.

  3. Check the box for Shuffle questions in this section. 

  4. Click the Save button.

  5. You will now see "Shuffling is on" underneath the section title.

  6. Click the blue Save and Close button once you have finished making changes.

You can also shuffle everything at the quiz level. This will shuffle the order of all questions that are not in sections and the order of all sections, but not the order of questions within sections.

  1. From the Manage Quizzes section of the Quiz Tool, click on the Quiz you want to edit.

  2. Click the Timing & Display heading.

  3. Check the box next to Shuffle questions and sections within the quiz. Does not cascade to sub-sections.

  4. Once you have finished making changes, click the blue Save and Close button.

Question Pools allow you to present a selection of random questions from a question bank. If you have more questions in the pool than are being pulled into the quiz, each student will be presented with a random set of questions in the question pool. There is no need to shuffle a question pool as the questions are already presented in a random order within the question pool.

  1. From the Manage Quizzes section of the Quiz Tool, click on the Quiz you want to edit.

  2. Click Create New and choose Question Pool from the dropdown menu.

  3. Give your Question Pool a title.

  4. Set the number of questions that will be pulled from the pool in the Number of Questions to Select field.

  5. Set the number of points each question is worth in the Question Pool in the Points per Question field.

  6. Click the grey Browse Question Library button. 

  7. Check the box next to each section or question that you want to be included in the Question Pool.

    • To import specific questions located inside a section, click on the arrow beside the desired section to expand and view all questions in that section. Then check the box next to the question(s) you want to be included in the Question Pool. 

  8. Click the blue Import button.

  9. Click the blue Save button.

  10. Once you have finished making changes, click the blue Save and Close button.